Even though Neale Daniher will not be in the coaches box on Friday night, he remains a big part of Melbourne captain David Neitz's AFL milestone week.

When Neitz runs out against Collingwood at the MCG, he will become the first player in Melbourne's history to reach 300 games, an achievement he describes as a "bit bizarre" considering the 149-year-old Demons are one of the world's oldest sporting teams.

Neitz, 32, has played under four coaches, Daniher, Neil Balme, Greg Hutchison and Mark Riley, but it is clearly Daniher that holds a special place in the skipper's heart.

Daniher appointed the then-25-year-old captain in 2000, the year Melbourne made the grand final, and helped Neitz grow into the role while providing a textbook example of how to cope with difficult times.

"When I first started in 2000, it was a good year from a team performance point of view ... but then we had a few hard years and I suppose then you've really got to look at yourself and try and work out how you're going to get the team up off the turf and make an impact on the guys," Neitz said.

"It was quite confronting at times. I was 25 and had a lot of older and more experienced guys around.

"It's not always easy ... but sometimes leadership is tough and you've got to do some hard things and make some hard calls."

In those initial years, Daniher was often turned to for advice and guidance but as Neitz became more comfortable as captain, he began to pick up a lot of Daniher's characteristics through observing his conduct.

"His resilience in times when everything was going against him and the way he sort of stood up and pinned the shoulders back and things like that, you learn from the way people handle adversity," Neitz said.

"I think probably that's the quality, and his passion, that stands out to me."

Balme, who coached Melbourne from 1993-1997 and is now football manager at Geelong, thought Neitz showed leadership from early on.

"He was just a baby when I got there, he was only 18, but he always had quite significant potential captaincy-wise. The sort of player that he is made him that," Balme said.

"I wasn't surprised at all when they made him captain, I was really pleased they did."

Neitz, the club's longest-serving captain, games record holder and leading goal-kicker, has needed all those skills in 2007, a year he described as "the most emotionally draining" of his 15-year career.

It was not just the turmoil of losing their coach of the past decade, Neitz also struggled to get on the park due to finger and knee injuries.

"I suppose you invest a bit of mental energy into that and then you've got to go out and try and play games of footy," he said.

"I guess for a period there I was quite mentally drained."

When Daniher coached his final game in late June, it was a measure of the respect Neitz held for his mentor in that the full-forward played with "more painkillers than my body could handle".

Daniher spoke to the team about Neitz after training on Thursday.

Neitz hoped to play on in 2008, but would be guided by the yet-to-be-appointed new coach and opened the possibility of relinquishing the captaincy.

"We've got enough talent in our team to be a finals side. Whether we're able to win a premiership, who knows?," Neitz said.

"Things in this caper can turn pretty quickly."

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